In Mesopotamia gods were thought to be physically present in the materials and experiences of daily life. Enlil, considered the most powerful Mesopotamian god during most of the third millennium B.C., was a "raging storm" or "wild bull," while the goddess Inanna reappeared in different guises as the morning and evening star. Deities literally inhabited their cult statues after they had been animated by the proper rituals, and fragments of worn statues were preserved within the walls of the temple.

This standing figure, with clasped hands and a wide-eyed gaze, is a worshiper. It was placed in the "Square Temple" at Tell Asmar, perhaps dedicated to the god Abu, in order to pray perpetually on behalf of the person it represented. For humans equally were considered to be physically present in their statues. Similar statues were sometimes inscribed with the names of rulers and their families.

1933-1934, excavated by Henri Frankfort on behalf of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; ceded to the Oriental Institute in the division of finds; acquired by the Museum in 1940, through an exchange of objects with the Oriental Institute.

Evans, Jean M. 2003. "Standing male figures with clasped hands." In Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, exh. cat. edited by Joan Aruz, with Ronald Wallenfels. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 24a, pp. 59-61.

Evans, Jean M. 2012. The Lives of Sumerian Sculpture: An Archaeology of the Early Dynastic Temple. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 47-48, figs. 15-16.